1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally a method and system for verifying the configuration of a financial account, and more specifically to a method and system for verifying that an account exists, along with verifying that a positive balance is present in the account, and that the account is configured to be compatible with automatic transactions.
2. Background Art
With the advent of technology, transactions involving an exchange of money are becoming faster and faster. Not too long ago, the process of paying the telephone bill was time consuming and involved a lot of paper. For instance, a person might first receive a physical paycheck from his employer. He would then physically go to the bank, to deposit the paycheck in his checking account. Once the physical paycheck proceeded through the check clearing system, the funds would be credited to the person's account. With the funds securely in his checking account, the person would then physically write a check to the telephone company and mail it. The telephone company would then physically go to the bank, deposit the check and so forth. The entire process may take ten days or more to complete.
With new technologies, this “revenue cycle” may be reduced to a day or two. For example, commonly assigned, copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/415,645, entitled “Method and System for Extending Credit with Automated Repayment”, teaches a system and method with which a lender may extend a line of credit to a borrower wherein payments of principal and interest are made by recurring automatic withdrawals. With such a system, the borrower is relieved of having to remember to send in payments as the creditor—with the borrower's permission—automatically withdraws payments at periodic intervals.
With such a line of credit, the lender may not receive a physical check from the borrower. Instead, the lender receives perhaps a routing number for the borrower's financial institution and a bank account number. With these numbers, the lender is able to execute the recurring automatic withdrawals, but only if the account is configured to receive such transactions. To be successful in completing the recurring automatic withdrawals, the lender needs a way to verify that an account corresponding to the borrower's information is in existence, and that it is configured to receive such transactions. One method of verifying these elements is to physically telephone the borrower's financial institution to confirm that the account and routing numbers are accurate, and to determine the configuration of the account. There are two problems with this method, however. First, the borrower must provide additional information to the lender, including financial institution telephone number, address, correspondence contact, etc. Second, the process of physically calling each financial institution of each applicant is burdensomely time consuming and cost prohibitive.
There is thus a need for an improved method and system for determining the existence or configuration of a financial account.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.